Departmental homepageProfessor Bayliss-Smith joined the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge in 1973 and was appointed Professor of Pacific Geography in 2013.
Professor Bayliss-Smith's research has mainly focused on environmental management by indigenous people in the humid tropics, with sites in central America, Nigeria and Melanesia. In Melanesia his work has involved collaboration with anthropologists and archaeologists, especially in the western Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea Highlands and Fiji.
His current research projects include:
(1) Agricultural intensification in pre-colonial Melanesia, with field sites at Kuk in the New Guinea Highlands and New Georgia in the western Solomon Islands.
(2) Livelihoods and social institutions in small islands vulnerable to globalisation and environmental change: Ontong Java atoll, Solomon Islands.
(3) Sámi reindeer societies of northern Sweden in the Viking age and medieval periods, including the transition from hunting to herding and the interpretation of the Badjelannda rock art site in Laponia.
(4) Historical demography of Melanesia, focusing on depopulation in Solomon Islands, the effects of epidemic mortality, the geography of fertility decline and the role of sexually transmitted diseases.
2010 T. P. Bayliss-Smith, K. V. Gough, A.E. Christensen and S. Kristensen, ‘Managing Ontong Java atoll: social institutions for production and governance of atoll resources in Solomon Islands’. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 31: 55-69.
2015 T. Bayliss-Smith and E. Hviding, ‘Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia: irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia, Solomon Islands’. Environmental Archaeology 20: 425-436.
2016 T. Mann, T. Bayliss-Smith and H. Westphal, ‘A geomorphic interpretation of shoreline change rates on reef islands’. Journal of Coastal Research 32(3): 500-507.
2024 T. Bayliss-Smith and A.E. Christensen, ‘From copra sequestration to outboard engine trawling: historical change in the Carbon Footprint of Ontong Java Atoll, Solomon Islands'. Journal of Pacific History 1-23.
